


Information Travels Faster in the Modern Age

by decinq



Series: Eddie Kaspbrak's Long List of Accolades, including Masters of Applied Statistics, Masters of Economics, Office Gossip Star and Gay Internet Icon [3]
Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti)
Genre: Eddie's Bloodsucking Office Job, Gen, POV Outsider, holiday party
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-14 19:53:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29051697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/decinq/pseuds/decinq
Summary: “I love this song!”She spun around in front of him, and he said, “This song is about riding dick, Laney!”“I know,” she laughed. “It’s still good!” She said, jumping up and down to the music. “I can still like Genuwine even though I’m gay!”
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak & Original Female Character(s)
Series: Eddie Kaspbrak's Long List of Accolades, including Masters of Applied Statistics, Masters of Economics, Office Gossip Star and Gay Internet Icon [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2107167
Comments: 14
Kudos: 145





	Information Travels Faster in the Modern Age

**Author's Note:**

> I am once again telling you that the title of this fic is from a Death Cab song. 
> 
> You could read this if you have not read the Twitter SMAU I started for this universe, but you will be missing a little bit of Troy context. You can read it [ HERE](https://twitter.com/longlistau).
> 
> For all you who are in love with Troy: welcome 2 his twisted mind.

Troy liked to think he was not a suspicious person. He thought most people meant well and he found it hard when people seemed to hurt each other on purpose. He knew he wasn't the world's most observant person - he had a hard time reading people and got a little nervous around authority figures, but he was easy going and took things at face value, which meant he didn't always notice subtleties. He had scraped by his mandatory freshman English credit with a C- and he was happy with that because he was terrible at subtext.

Sitting in Alex's wide-open apartment, he felt like a needle stuck in a groove. The apartment had lots of white, lots of brick, big windows across the south wall that he was painfully jealous of. Hae was sitting on the floor in front of the coffee table, perched on a throw pillow as Alex did her eye make-up. Roni was refilling their mix-matched glasses with more Prosecco. Laney had her forehead pressed to the glass at one of the windows, looking out of the view across the Bowery and intermittently tapping something out on her phone before going back to looking back out the window.

Troy himself was sitting at the table between the open-floor plan's kitchen space and living area, shuffling a deck of cards so they could play a round of King's Cup when Alex was done with Hae's eyeshadow.

He watched Laney smile down at her phone, and he asked, "How's Jack?"

"She's good - they got there about an hour ago."

"What's she saying?" He nodded at her phone in her hand, eyebrow up.

"Oh," Laney said, and gave a little shake of her head. "That was just EK." She went back to looking out the window, but Troy watched Alex roll her eyes from her spot on the couch. Roni held back a snort and settled at the table across from Troy. Laney didn't notice, or hear, or didn't care. Troy wasn't sure.

He knew Alex was more in his camp, didn't really like Kaspbrak, not even in a pleasantry sort of way. Alex's job reported into Kaspbrak's org, so he scared her a bit, and if she fucked up, he would tell her about it. Troy thought he was rude. He knew Laney liked that he was direct, that you knew where you stood with him; he was clearly smart, and a fucking shark, and he almost always got his expense reports in on time, which Troy could appreciate even if he thought he was a dickhead. But in the last few months that he'd gotten to know Laney a bit better, he was having a harder time parsing out what their deal was. For years, Troy has watched Laney and Kaspbrak make small talk at the coffee machine; he's seen them in meetings together, their math always supporting each-other's. But since Kaspbrak got stabbed by his wife or a serial killer or whatever other rumour one chose to believe, things had been different. Laney lingered in his doorway, leaning on the threshold. They got lunch together. She drank scotch with him in his office after hours.

Troy knew he had a _thing_ about Laney. She was cool in a way that he thought most women his age were - she read actual books on her commute to and from the office; she liked whiskey cocktails with lots of bitters; she didn't style her hair very often and wore the same pair of jeans every Friday. He had wanted her to like him for a long time, and hadn't ever been able to figure out why she didn't - and now that he knew, he was trying really hard to make up for it. He liked her and liked her wife and knew she was good at her job. She was kind to him even though he wasn't sure he deserved it, and it made him want to make it up to her in a way he wasn't sure was actually possible. So this _thing,_ her friendship with Kaspbrak...it made him nervous.

Kaspbrak didn't seem to have work friends - Troy imagined finger quotes around it; Troy didn't know how to keep things casual, never had, so he considered the five of them to be a little group, actual friends, people who laughed and shared music suggestions and helped each other when they could. Just because they went to the same place 5 days a week didn't mean that didn't matter; to him, that seemed like calling your friends as a teenager 'school friends.' Like, yeah, maybe you only knew them _because_ you were forced to be in the same space for 8 hours a day, five days a week, but seeing them outside of work meant something. He cared about them all a lot, anyway.

But Kaspbrak made him feel suspicious. The guy was at least a decade older than Laney, had power over her in the workplace, had money in a way she might never; he was going through a drawn-out divorce, which also seemed suspect to Troy. Troy understood why anyone would like Laney, but he was having a harder time figuring out why they hung out so much. It was like if Troy wanted to hang out with college students all the time - people would call him a weirdo and make judgements on his intentions. He thought Kaspbrak deserved the same scrutiny, that was all.

"Can one of you take my picture?" Laney asked, turning to them. Roni nodded, took Laney's phone when she held it out. They snapped a few, and handed the phone back.

"Are you almost done?" Roni asked Hae and Alex, settling back at the table.

Laney joined them, and said, "You have three minutes before we start without you."

Alex said, "Okay, so shut the fuck up while I glue on these eyelashes."

Roni laughed. Troy said, "Wait, you glue on eyelashes? What?"

"Fake ones," Laney said, with a goofy look on her face, like she was making fun of him. Alex said, "I said, shut the fuck up."

Laney made a face, like, sheesh, _we're in trouble now,_ and Troy shrugged at her. Together, they spread the deck of cards out in a circle in the middle of the table. Laney was diligent about it, lining them up so they were all evenly dispersed. Organized.

"I wish there was a way to lose at this game on purpose," Laney said. "I have plans to be incoherent by the end of the night."

-

The party was crowded; they had made their rounds, checking out all the food options. Troy was beside himself at how much stupid rich people shit they had. There was a guy who was swirling pasta noodles into a hollowed-out wheel of cheese the size of Troy's coffee table. It was all very lavish. It was insanity.

They were standing in a corner of the dance floor in a misshapen circle.

Laney was loaded. “Laney,” Troy said, “you’re loaded.” They had to half-shout everything to be heard over the music.

She smiled at him. ”I’m having fun,” she yelled at him. “I love this song!”

She spun around in front of him, and he said, “This song is about riding dick, Laney!”

“I know,” she laughed. “It’s still good!” She said, jumping up and down to the music. “I can still like Genuwine even though I’m gay!”

Troy laughed. He could feel that his cheeks were rosy. Ten minutes earlier, Alex had said he looked like a cherub, which he was trying to take as a compliment. “Okay,” he said, and Laney laughed. It made him feel really happy they were friends.

They were doing this half-hearted, hopping kind of dancing since all five of them had a drink in their hand, but Troy didn’t care much if he looked goofy doing it.

"I know all the words to this song,” she said to Troy. “We should actually do karaoke at Jack’s work next time. I’m good at it.”

“Really?” Troy asked. It surprised him - he couldn't imagine her doing karaoke. She was fun, but a bit reserved; he was realizing there was so much about her that he didn't know.

“I’m fun!” She said, and then sang, _Girl, when I break you off, I promise you won’t want to get off_ in tune with the music, and Troy started laughing again. _My saddle’s waiting, come and jump on it._ Then she said, “They should not be playing this at a work function.” And Troy agreed with her on that, actually. It was extremely sexual. He was pretty sure he'd _had_ sex with this song playing.

When it ended, Roni and Alex split off to get more food, and Laney said, "I need a drink," and slipped away towards one of the four (four!) bars in the room. Troy watched her go; she stood in line waiting, and it took all of thirty seconds before Kaspbrak slid up beside her. He couldn't see her face, but she bumped her shoulder into his and they waited together.

"What do you think they're talking about?" Hae asked, and when Troy looked to her, she lifted her chin in Laney's direction.

"Spreadsheets?" Troy asked, trying to be generous. He couldn't imagine what they had in common, what they talked about if not work. He didn't want to think about it too hard. It made his stomach knot.

Hae scoffed. "I don't know about him," she said.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"Don't trust him," she said, and Troy felt like it wasn't a full answer. They had a second group chat, one without Laney that they mostly used to talk about how sad and single and lonely they all were, but sometimes they fell into a childish habit of talking smack on Kaspbrak, or June, who Troy never really had to interact with but who made Hae and Alex's lives a living hell on the regular. He knew Hae was most suspicious of him; Alex didn't like him, but Troy got the impression she just thought he was an asshole - Hae thought he was in love with Laney, or at least trying to fuck her, or maybe already doing so.

Troy didn't know what he thought about it - he knew Laney loved her wife, but that didn't mean anything, necessarily. Sometimes people were...flexible. Troy was too sensitive for casual sex, let alone having an open relationship, but he didn't judge people who did. But every time that Laney and Troy had talked about sexuality, or emotions, or anything heavier than the inane bullshit they spent their lunch breaks gabbing over, she always called herself gay, or a lesbian. She had never said 'queer' (which Troy wasn't sure he was allowed to say) or 'bi' or anything else. He didn't _think_ she was interested in sex with men. But, Troy realized, he kind of was going through the same thing - he had never thought about sex with men _before_ now, but maybe things changed; maybe people changed things for you.

"She seems to trust him, though," he said, which felt like a safe response. "And we should trust her, right?"

Hae sighed. "Yeah, I guess so." Across the room, Laney was leaning her head on Kaspbrak's shoulder, and he was laughing at something she said. "I don't want her to be taken advantage of."

"Do you think she trusts us enough to tell us if she felt taken advantage of?"

"I want to think so," Hae said, "but wouldn't that mean it was too late?"

Troy watched Laney stand up straight, pat Kaspbrak's arm. He nodded at her and said something that made her laugh a huge bellow of a laugh, and then he slunk off to mingle with the Senior Leadership Team, who were gathered around the table that was serving cups of fancy ramen.

"Let's go get another drink," Troy said, dropping it. And so they made their way over to Laney, and all ordered another drink.

-

Troy had peeled off from the group a while ago, making face with his buddies in Accounting for the last half hour or so. Roni had done the same thing, disappearing to hang out with the IT team. Laney had gone off to shovel the leftover pasta into her mouth with Kaspbrak a while ago. Troy had no clue where Hae or Alex had ended up. He was standing in line at the concierge, trying to get into one of the long line of cabs, the drivers eager to get over-tipped on the company account thanks to the vouchers.

He was absently scrolling through his text messages, unsure of what to say in the group chat without Laney, where the others were ribbing on Kaspbrak with a little more enthusiasm than normal. Troy didn't particularly like the guy, but something about it in the context of Laney's personal life made him feel weird about it. He thought Kaspbrak was a dickhead, but he knew Laney liked him, and he was trying to respect that and avoid being overly suspicious of him.

Maybe he was stupid for wanting to believe the best in people, though, because when he looked up from his phone, he caught sight of Laney and Kaspbrak near the front of the taxi line. Laney had her hand around Kaspbrak's waist, under his peacoat, and he had an arm tossed over her shoulder. She was leaning against him heavily. Troy wondered what people who didn't know either of them socially thought about that.

A cab pulled away and another pulled up, and a hotel employee in a big, puffy jacket signalled for Kaspbrak and Laney to step forward. Troy assumed Kaspbrak would get her into the cab and then wait for the next one. He watched as Kaspbrak opened the door closest to them and helped Laney into the back seat. He said something to her, and she must have said something back because he smiled and nodded before walking around to the other side of the cab and sliding in through the other back door. Troy watched the cab pull away and turn left out of the hotel's driveway. Something twisted in his stomach that felt like it had very little to do with all the Old Fashioneds he'd had over the course of the night.

He tapped a message out to the others: _I don't think we should talk about this anymore._

And then he stuffed his phone into his pocket and waited his turn to take his pre-paid taxi home.


End file.
